Drinking containers of various types including travel mugs are well known in the art. Such drinking vessels have been designed for various purposes such as to be used on bicycles, while hiking, and doing various indoor and outdoor activities. In this art field much effort has been undertaken to design various removable lids, closure devices, or other mechanisms for opening and closing a drinking orifice of a drinking container in a convenient manner and to prohibit the spilling of the drink contained within the drinking vessel should it be accidently overturned. One example of a drinking vessel of this type is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 7,546,933, the subject matter of which is incorporated by reference herein. In this particular piece of prior art, the drinking vessel has a container body and a removable lid which covers the cavity of the drinking container, and which further has a trigger mechanism which operates various apertures in the lid so as to conveniently dispense the drink to the user thereof.
While the aforementioned US Patent, and others have operated with various degrees of success, there are shortcomings with such designs which have prohibited their commercial implementation. For example, in the prior art device noted above, the prior art product, when delivered, is readily operable to open and close a drink orifice with a single touch. However, a thorough review of the patent will reveal that the mechanism is quite complex in its overall design. Further, because of its complexity, and the fact that most of the mechanism is enclosed within the removable cover, such components inevitably become exposed to various different drinks which might be consumed by the user. For example, these drinking vessels may routinely be used to carry hot beverages, such as coffee. However, on occasion, such vessels may also be used for soft drink beverages, and even alcoholic beverages such as wine. When the internal components of these removable lids are exposed to such diverse fluids, often trace amounts of the fluid becomes deposited on these components. Later, when the liquid portion evaporates, it leaves behind a sticky residue or other deposit which will eventually cause the mechanism to malfunction. Further, such deposits within the removable caps also creates an unsanitary condition which, before long, will make the drinking vessel unsafe to use.
Therefore, it has long been known that it would be desirable to have a fluid dispensing vessel which can be opened and closed by a single touch, and which is easy to maintain, sanitary, and provides numerous benefits not achievable with the prior art devices known heretofore.